Two-Thirds of Canadians Concerned About Foreign Influence Through Social Media: Elections Canada Survey

The logo of the Chinese instant messaging application WeChat is shown on the screen of a tablet in an illustration picture taken on July 24, 2019, in Paris. Martin Bureau / AFP via Getty Images

Four in five Canadians are concerned about false information affecting the next federal election, while many also fear foreign actors exploiting social media to influence opinions, according to an Elections Canada-commissioned survey.

The survey, which was delivered to the agency in April and first covered covered by Blacklock’s Reporter, asked 2,501 Canadians whether they thought “different types of electoral interference could have any impact on the outcome of the next federal election in Canada.”

The largest proportion (80 percent) of electors said they believe the spread of false information online could have a moderate or severe impact on the outcome of the federal election. The second-largest proportion (69 percent) said that foreign countries or groups using social media and other means to influence the political opinions of Canadians could have an impact.

The concerns align with investigations of the ongoing foreign interference inquiry, which is scrutinizing the use of traditional and social media platforms by foreign actors for interference.

As part of the evidence submitted to the inquiry, a July 2023 intelligence report from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned that Chinese-language media in Canada play a crucial role in promoting pro-Beijing narratives and facilitating censorship within the Chinese diaspora.

The report highlights WeChat, a messaging and social media application widely used by the diaspora, as presenting “enduring challenges” because it provides a platform for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to exert control and influence by spreading false information. It also said the app, which many in the diaspora use to communicate with family and friends in China, facilitates Beijing’s “surveillance, repression, and influence over overseas Chinese.”

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault was asked about the capacity of the federal elections watchdog to monitor social media platforms like WeChat during his Sept. 24 testimony at the inquiry.

Perrault confirmed that Elections Canada had been monitoring WeChat since 2019. He also noted that a team of 27 individuals was monitoring content across similar platforms in 15 languages during the last election, including Chinese, Cantonese, Punjabi, and Russian. For the upcoming election, he said the number of personnel dedicated to this task will increase to 41.

“This is a reflection of the fact that our electoral process is increasingly impacted by online conversations, and social media will play in the future an even greater role than it has in the past,” he told the inquiry.

Concerns over foreign money being used to influence Canadian politics were also cited among Canadians, with 68 percent of respondents viewing this as a potential risk, and 64 percent expressing concern about foreign hacking targeting electoral systems.